Wings of Death

Out of breath

 Alex was too exhausted to run any farther. He felt as if his heart would explode at any moment.  He was out of breath and could not run anymore. Eventually, his feet started trembling and he collapsed on the ground. He could see the Bloodwings high up in the sky. They were flying in his direction. What he felt at that moment was something greater than horror. His thoughts went back to his friends Margaret and Nathan and he felt he could not give up as yet. There were people out there who cared about him and depended on him. He remembered Nathan’s plan and that filled him with hope.

He surveyed his surroundings and tried to locate a shelter. Almost all the houses had broken windows and would offer almost no protection. Maybe some of them might have a basement but he had no time to find out which house had an open basement. Suddenly his gaze fell on a closed garage a few meters away. He gathered his strength and got back to his feet. Luckily, he still had the screwdriver with him and with that he managed to pry open the shutter. Once inside he quickly put the shutter down again. He sat there in the dark garage for what seemed an eternity. When he finally came back to his senses he called up Joshua and explained his current situation. For now he was safe inside the garage but he had no food or water. His lips were slaked with thirst and he could barely speak in whispers. Alex wanted to take a better look at the garage and switched on his flashlight. It was pretty big but there were no cars inside. There was a tool bench on one end and the other end had a cupboard. Maybe someone had been using this garage as a workshop he thought. He crawled up to the cupboard and gently opened the locks. There were mostly clothes inside. After searching the cupboard thoroughly he found a secret compartment. To his great surprise it wasn’t locked. The special compartment contained a fragmentation grenade, a handgun and a can of soda. Numerous questions surfaced in his head. Who did this garage belong to? Why on earth were there weapons inside a cupboard? Was the soda safe for consumption? Since he had no other options he decided to pour the contents of the can down his throat and quench his thirst. It tasted quite normal, he thought. Maybe it was just soda. He stared at the weapons long and hard and then put them inside his backpack. One could always depend on firearms in a post-apocalyptic world.

The clock struck 10 AM and Alex’s phone rang again. Joshua was relieved to hear his voice. He had almost given up hope of seeing Alex again.

Joshua tried to speak but his voice began to tremble, he had been crying recently. He spoke at last, in a broken voice, “You don’t know how worried I was. Thank God you are alright. Don’t try to come back. Just wait for it to rain”.

Alex was too terrified to even attempt anything like that. “I am staying right here man. Don’t worry. I thought I was a goner. Take care of Mr. Smith and his family. I might be stuck here for a few days”.

He remembered why he had decided to restore the network in the first place. It was because he wanted to stay in touch with Nathan and Margaret. He had to call Nathan and tell him all about his little misadventure. At least they were right about the rain. Alex had been able to walk quite freely when it was raining outside and there was not a single Bloodwing in sight. He was convinced that the rain served as a deterrent for the monsters.

Alex dialed Nathan’s number for the third time but he did not pick up. He was a bit worried at first but then he remembered that Nathan was a late riser and it was only 10:15 AM. Maybe he hadn’t woken up yet. He thought it would be better to give Margaret a call.

Margaret picked up the call almost immediately. “Alex. I have been trying to get in touch with you guys all morning but the network was down”, she said.

“I know. I just went into the server room and got it up and running again”, replied Alex.

“What? You actually went outside and managed to reset the servers? How did you manage to find the main office? More importantly, how did you manage to avoid the Bloodwings?” she kept on bombarding Alex with questions.

Alex chuckled and said “It’s a long story. I thought I was going to die for sure”.

He then went to narrate the entire story. Margaret was shocked to hear it. She made Alex swear that he would not go outside again without informing them. She knew it would be best if they could meet up.

“By the way, Nathan isn’t picking up the phone,” added Alex.

Margaret knew Nathan too well to be worried about such a thing even during an apocalypse. She reassured Alex by saying that he was a late riser and would probably be up by 11 AM.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too”, replied Alex.

They spoke for almost twenty minutes during which time they went over their plan once again.  Margaret told him to chalk out the quickest route to the nearby research facility and make a list of basements and garages nearby. It was a piece of cake for Alex since the servers were back online again. He just needed to login remotely into the local security database. Once inside he could easily download a detailed map of the whole town including the blueprints of all nearby buildings. Alex still hadn’t told her about the weapons he had found in the garage. He decided to keep it a secret from her. When they were done talking he tried to find out more about this garage and its owner. Strangely enough it showed that the garage belonged to a certain Russian guy. He thought perhaps the owner might have been a spy, not that any of it mattered anymore.

Back in the parking lot Mr. and Mrs. Smith tried to contact their friends and family members. Meanwhile Joshua was busy making a blueprint for a strange contraption. What was the blueprint for? Why had he brought all those cameras? He refused to tell anyone about his plan.